Danbury High School seniors discuss teen pregnancy on Friday, Sept....

Danbury High School students Samantha Pena, left, and Darleny Salazar, right, are instructed in parenting skills by teacher Diane Arifian during the Infant and Toddler Program on Friday, Sept. 14, 2012.
Photo: Michael Duffy

Danbury High School students Samantha Pena, left, and Darleny...

Danbury High School students are instructed in parenting skills by teacher Daine Arifian during the Infant and Toddler Program on Friday, Sept. 14, 2012. From left are; Samantha Pena, Sara Billerback holding her daughter, Christine, 9-months, Arifian and Darleny Salazar.

Photo: Michael Duffy

Danbury High School students are instructed in parenting skills by...

Danbury High School student Darleny Salazar talks about her pregnancy during the Infant and Toddler Program on Friday, Sept. 14, 2012.
Photo: Michael Duffy

Saleh Hanaif, who heads the Teen Fathers Program, a Connecticut state certified program, meets with teens to talk about teen pregnancy, safe sexual practices and parenthood at the offices of the Greater Bridgeport Adolecent Pregnancy Program on Mill Hill Avenue in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday September 18, 2012.
Photo: Christian Abraham

Carolina Rivera, a student at Harding High School, takes part in the Greater Bridgeport Adolecent Pregnancy Program on Mill Hill Avenue in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday September 18, 2012. With instruction from Yanira Diaz-Olivares, a human sexuality counselor with Greater Bridgeport Adolecent Pregnancy Program and Saleh Hanaif, who heads the Teen Fathers Program, teens learn about teen pregnancy, safe sexual practices and coping with parenthood.
Photo: Christian Abraham

Milton Jones, a student at University of New Haven, takes part in the Greater Bridgeport Adolecent Pregnancy Program on Mill Hill Avenue in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday September 18, 2012. With instruction from Yanira Diaz-Olivares, a human sexuality counselor with Greater Bridgeport Adolecent Pregnancy Program and Saleh Hanaif, who heads the Teen Fathers Program, teens learn about teen pregnancy, safe sexual practices and coping with parenthood.
Photo: Christian Abraham

For Jaquana Bell, another Danbury High School student, an abstinence pledge was born from her mother's struggles as a teen mother of twins.

Teenage pregnancy is on the decline in Connecticut and across America, recent state and national statistics show.

In 2010, the teen birth rate was the lowest since 1946, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. The rate was 34.3 births per 1,000 teens; the highest rate was in 1957 with 96.3 births per 1,000 teens.

Numerous discussions with teens and their advocates across Fairfield County indicate a prime reason for the dramatic decline -- more and more teenagers are taking responsibility for their sexual choices.

Important conversations about accountability and abstinence are being held in many high schools and neighborhoods, a trend that has helped fuel sweeping, double-digit declines in teen pregnancy rates.

In Bridgeport, which typically accounts for more than 10 percent of the state's teen births, the city saw a 32.8-percent drop in teen births from 1998 to 2009, according to the state Department of Public Health.

Stamford experienced a more than 34-percent decline in teen births in the same period, while Danbury saw a nearly 13-percent drop. Greenwich found no change with seven teenage births in 1998 and in 2009, although numbers did vary during intervening years.

The decline in Bridgeport and Stamford was greater than the state average.

Statewide, the decline in teenage births from 1998 to 2009 was just over 24 percent.

"I don't have sex because I don't want to have a child right now," said Bell, a senior. "If I bring a child into the world, I want to be able to nurture and provide for (him or her)."

Part of Bell's abstinence pledge is tied to her upbringing. Her mother regularly told Bell and her sister to get an education and a good job first -- and start a family later.

"She wants us to have a better life than she did," Bell said.

`The problem is not solved'

Even as the teen birth rate declines, however, the trend isn't apparent yet for a particular portion of the population.

Statistically, teen pregnancy rates are especially high among the state's Hispanic teens, said Rudy Feudo, executive director of the Greater Bridgeport Area Prevention Program.

"In Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven, (teen pregnancy rates) are getting better, but the majority of kids who are getting pregnant are Hispanic," Feudo said.

Hispanic teen birth rates in Connecticut are 8.5 times higher than for whites, and twice that for blacks age 15 to 19, according to the state Department of Health.

"So the problem is not solved by any means," Feudo said.

Still, Feudo and other prevention advocates say they are encouraged by trends that indicate teens are heeding safe sex messages, no matter their ethnicity.

Contraceptives the norm

For Burns, the high school junior, the voice of pregnancy prevention has come from vivid images of lost childhoods, dirty diapers and crying babies on the MTV reality show, "Teen Mom."

Burns said she and several friends are faithful viewers of the program, which has convinced them they do not want to become teen moms.

At Fairfield Warde High, Burns said, most teens who are sexually active use contraceptives to avoid pregnancy. While Burns said she is not in a sexual relationship, she would "absolutely" use birth control to prevent an unwanted pregnancy.

For Acosta, the Danbury High football player, safe sex is also about commitment and respect.

Acosta said he believes more teens wait to have sex until they are in a committed relationship.

In that scenario, couples are more likely to practice safe sex, he said, adding that he has bought condoms for his friends when they are too embarrassed to do so themselves.

The Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization in New York that provides worldwide research on sexual and reproductive health, reports that 85 percent of the decline in teen pregnancy is the result of improved contraceptive use.

State law allows teenagers to buy over-the-counter contraceptives without parental consent -- and in the case of birth-control pills, without a pelvic examination.

In some cases, teenage girls may buy the "morning after" pill, an emergency option available since 2009 for those 17 and older who either did not use birth control or had it fail.

Although recent laws have enabled teens to procure contraceptives on their own, not every proprietor apparently knows -- or agrees -- with the law.

Danbury High School health and parenting teacher Diane Arifian said she "blasted" a local pharmacist who refused to sell the pills to a female teen of legal purchasing age.

Arifian told the pharmacist his reaction wasn't just against the law, it might also lead to an unwanted pregnancy.

"It ruins my credibility to tell (teens) this should be an easy purchase, and they find out it's not true," she said.

While many health educators believe birth control should be accessible at school, teens interviewed for this story say they don't favor public schools dispensing contraceptives to students.

"It makes it too easy," said Acosta, the football player.

Eighteen-year-old Milton Jones, of Bridgeport, a graduate of the teen father class offered through the Greater Bridgeport Area Prevention Program, didn't plan to become a teen father. Most teens never do.

Although he and his girlfriend used birth control most of the time, Jones admitted he "became a bit too comfortable."

"It's a lot of responsibility, time management and patience," Jones said. "If I were a teen millionaire, I wouldn't mind having a kid. The love and support, no problem. But financially, it's hard."

His advice to other teens is direct and practical: "If you make the choice and decision to have sex, just be smart about it. Make conscious decisions."

Changing the odds

Andrea Payo, young parenting program coordinator at Stamford Family Centers, has seen the rewards of education, accessibility and accountability with the prevention of teen pregnancy.

Payo said she believes teens are taking more responsibility for their lives and futures, especially if their own parents had children as teens.

One of her goals is helping teen mothers to not become part of another a national statistic: 25 percent of teen mothers have a second child within two years. Over three decades, she said proudly, her program has been able to beat the odds.

For Arifian, Payo and their colleagues across the state, the best methods are ones that empower teens to make safe, responsible choices that lead to diplomas and degrees, not a room in their parents' basement.

"We've made strides," Feudo said. "I'd like to see it (the teen pregnancy rate) at zero, and we're inching closer to that," he said. "It's a long-distance race. You have to hang in there."